PH supports North-South Korea Peace Declaration

PEACE. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in plant a pine tree at the demarcation line in the demilitarized zone as a symbol of peace and prosperity on the sidelines of their historic one-and-a-half-hour meeting at the border village of Panmunjeom on April 27, 2018. The meeting was the first in more than 10 years. Kim becomes the first North Korean leader to cross over the border and set foot on South Korean soil. (TASS File Photo/PNA photo)

MANILA — The Philippine government on Saturday expressed support for the Panmunjeom Declaration of Peace as the fruitful result between the historic meeting of South Korean and North Korean leaders last week.

In a statement sent to the media, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Manila hopes the development between the two states would now lead to the long-sought peace in the Korean Peninsula.

President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea met at the Inter-Korean Summit in Panmunjeom on April 27. This resulted in the “Panmunjeom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification of the Korean Peninsula”.

The Philippines hailed both the historic meeting and the resulting declaration of peace.

“It is hoped that this development will contribute to the ongoing process of reducing tensions, the peaceful resolution of prevailing issues between concerned parties, and the eventual denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula that will contribute to the peace and stability of the region,” the DFA statement read. “The Filipino people stand with our Korean brothers and sisters at this critical moment in history.”

On Saturday, state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Pyongyang’s time was reset 30 minutes earlier than the previous, aligning its time zone with Seoul.

The unification of North and South Korea’s standard time began on May 4 at 11:30 a.m. (local time).

“The time-resetting is the first practical step taken after the historic third north-south summit meeting to speed up the process for the north and the south to become one and turn their different and separated things into the same and single ones,” KCNA said.